At first everything went well. Paulo Raimundo was elected Secretary General of the PCP on November 12, 2022, succeeding Jerónimo de Sousa, who held this position for nearly 18 years. In the first poll published by Pitagórica for TVI/CNN Portugal after their election, with data collected between November 11 and 17, the Communists doubled their voting intentions, to 5.1%. In the previous month, October, they amounted to 2.6% (Intercampus).
However, time passed. Initially, Raimundo seemed to want to temper the party’s stance on the war in Ukraine. But then it went back to the way it was. In April, the leader of the communist parliament said that the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, “is the personification of a xenophobic and belligerent power, surrounded and supported by forces of a fascist and neo-Nazi nature” and that “for eight years he has carried out attacks and massacring the Ukrainian population itself in the region of the Donbass and eliminating those who oppose it”, while at the same time “praising the collaborators of the Nazi SS in World War II and denouncing their atrocities against the people of Ukraine and Poles are whitewashed”.
The communists returned to anti-Kiev orthodoxy. Zelensky came to Portugal, sat in parliament – and the PCP bench was empty. For weeks it was the only party to vote against parliamentary permission for the president of the republic to go to Ukraine.
“What will take place on September 3, right after the Festa, is not exactly the election battle, it is the battle for housing, health care, wages, rights and against this injustice and inequality.”
Gone are the 5.6% of the Pitagórica survey published in November 2022. Paulo Raimundo arrives today for the first day of this year’s edition of the Festa do “Avante!” with the party at 3.1% (Intercampus survey conducted the second week of August). It is less than the 4.6% achieved in the January 2022 parliamentary elections.
This will be the first “Avante!” in which Raimundo will present himself as general secretary of the PCP. The party leader is new, but his political program will be the same as always. Like his predecessors, Raimundo has two planned speeches: one today, in which he welcomes visitors, and another on Sunday, in which he introduces the new politician.
“You can’t say it doesn’t have the resources, doesn’t have the conditions to value professionals, to respect them, to raise salaries, to create conditions, because there is no money, and then there is money to leave 40% to make. 6 billion euros to the private healthcare sector.”
On August 22, the communist leader visited the venue of the Festa, in Quinta da Atalaia (Seixal, Setúbal district) and took the opportunity to tell journalists that the party’s central priority in the new political year for the time being is to challenging the government’s policies – and launching alternative proposals – than in the upcoming elections (Madeira regional elections in September and European elections in June next year): “What will be put forward on September 3, directly after the Festa, it’s not exactly election battles, it’s the fight for housing, healthcare, wages, rights, and against this injustice and inequality.” So what matters is “reaffirming the PCP, giving the workers and the population confidence to face the real challenges and conflicts they face”. The SNS was one of the stated priorities: “It cannot be said that it does not have the resources, does not have the conditions to value professionals, to respect them, to increase salaries, to create conditions, because there is no money . and then there is money to transfer 40%, 6 billion euros, to private healthcare.”
In recent days, the communists have started publishing proposals that they will present in parliament. On Wednesday, at a press conference at party headquarters, Margarida Botelho, from the Central Committee Secretariat, proposed transferring responsibility for daycare centers from the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security to the Ministry of Education, as well as the creation of a public network that guarantees universality and gratuity, aiming to gradually create 148,000 jobs by 2030.
The party will – he said – introduce a bill that “establishes a new paradigm with regard to childcare”, pointing to the difficulties tens of thousands of families face in finding places for their children, with the aim of “ensuring quality care ”. educational response, based on free access, guaranteeing places for all children from birth to three years old and contributing to reversing the demographic deficit”. 100,000 job openings and 148,000 by 2030,” he said.
“The sustained and prolonged price rise is confirmed, which affects the living conditions of the workers and the population and turns the rise in wages and pensions into a national emergency.”
Yesterday, the party announced another proposal to be presented in the Assembly of the Republic, namely to limit the rent increase to 0.43%. “In a situation of continued increases in the prices of essential goods and services, the PCP believes that updates to the value of rents – of current contracts and contracts that can be extended or concluded with other tenants – will exceed the limit set for 2022. imposed cannot be exceeded. (year when inflation soared), i.e. 0.43%,” the party defended in a statement. The communists referred to information released yesterday by INE, which estimates that the value of rents could rise by 6.94% next year if the government does not cap updates as it did this year. “The sustained and prolonged price rise is confirmed, which affects the living conditions of the workers and the population and turns the rise in wages and pensions into a national emergency.” Due to the recent veto by the President of the Republic on the so-called ‘housing package’, this theme will be important in the first days of the new parliamentary year – and the PCP project aims to provide that lift. The Socialists have already said they will reaffirm the vetoed law without making any changes to it — ignoring all presidential caveats.
“Three Magical Days”
Paulo Raimundo arrives today for the first time as party leader at the PCP’s annual party and has already spoken of the “deeply loving connection” he has with the event, describing it as “three magical days”, of “great joy” and “policy of affirmation and confidence in the future”.
As for the debates, the poster of the festival features a discussion on the theme “Stop privatization! For a TAP that the country needs”, which shows the intervention of the deputy who was part of the parliamentary committee of inquiry, Bruno Dias , and the directors Agostinho Lopes, Manuel Gouveia and Ricardo Costa.
PCP parliamentary leader Paula Santos and deputy Duarte Alves, together with leaders Vasco Cardoso and Tiago Cunha, form the panel on the theme “Who pays and what are taxes for in Portugal? For a policy of fiscal justice”.
Former communist general secretary Jerónimo de Sousa is one of the names on the “Comply and Uphold the Constitution” panel, which will also feature interventions from Deputy Alma Rivera, former parliamentary leader João Oliveira, as well as Ana Tarrafa and Rui Dinis.
The issue of health will also be highlighted, with the debate “Strengthening the SNS, guaranteeing access to health care”, with interventions by Bernardino Soares, João Dias, Isabel Barbosa, Patrícia Machado and André Gomes, and in the city of youth there. the debate will be “Youth and Mental Health: Problems and Solutions”. A panel is also planned on “The intervention of PCP delegates: “Each day with you – your voice in the European Parliament””.
The 50th anniversary of the “carnation revolution” will be highlighted. Agir will take the stage at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 25, for a “tribute concert to the song book of April 25, its poets and its intervention musicians who marked that era, such as José Afonso, Sérgio Godinho or Faust”. It will have as guests Carolina Deslandes, Lura, Milhanas and Paulo de Carvalho.
Source: DN
